San Antonio’s Girl Up members help children of unpaid...

1of6Reanna Wilson (right) of the local chapter of Girl Up gets a hug from TSA Lead Officer Chynae Raiford after the nonprofit group that empowers young women donated food and other items to help children of TSA government workers at the San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019.Photo: Kin Man Hui /San Antonio Express-News

2of6TSA Lead Officer Chynae Raiford pushes a cartful of donated items with the help of TSA Security Manager Josh Cottrilll on Wednesday, Jan. 23, as girls from the local chapter of Girl Up, a nonprofit that empowers young women, brought in everything from juice boxes and fruit snacks to school supplies and diapers to help children of TSA government workers at the San Antonio International Airport, who have been working without pay for more than a month.Photo: Kin Man Hui /San Antonio Express-News

3of6TSA Lead Officers Tiffany Rios (left) and Chynae Raiford (right) help load a cart with donated items from Brittney Carson (second from left), Simone Green, Jada Young and Reanna Wilson - all members of the local chapter of Girl Up, a nonprofit that empowers young women on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. The donated food items and other supplies went to help children of TSA government workers at the San Antonio International Airport. The four young women from the local chapter along with two parent chaperones off-loaded a truckload of items received by two TSA officers. With the government shutdown going on for more than a month, local TSA personnel were grateful for the donations which helps them and their families during the shutdown. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff photographer / San Antonio Express-News

4of6Parent LaShawna Jordan (right) takes a group picture as the local chapter of Girl Up, a nonprofit that empowers young women, donates food items and other supplies to help children of TSA government workers at the San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Four young women from the local chapter along with two parent chaperones off-loaded a truckload of items received by two TSA officers. With the government shutdown going on for more than a month, local TSA personnel were grateful for the donations which helps them and their families during the shutdown. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff photographer / San Antonio Express-News

5of6Janet Young (left) gets a hug from Angel Dickerson as they await for more donated items to be dropped off as the local chapter of Girl Up, a nonprofit that empowers young women, donates food items and other supplies to help children of TSA government workers at the San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Four young women from the local chapter along with two parent chaperones off-loaded a truckload of items received by two TSA officers. With the government shutdown going on for more than a month, local TSA personnel were grateful for the donations which helps them and their families during the shutdown. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff photographer / San Antonio Express-News

6of6Janet Young (from left), Brittney Carson and La Shawna Jordan load up items in the back of Young's car as the local chapter of Girl Up, a nonprofit that empowers young women, donates food items and other supplies to help children of TSA government workers at the San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Four young women from the local chapter along with two parent chaperones off-loaded a truckload of items received by two TSA officers. With the government shutdown going on for more than a month, local TSA personnel were grateful for the donations which helps them and their families during the shutdown. (Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News)Photo: Kin Man Hui, Staff photographer / San Antonio Express-News

The four teen girls were hard at work at the San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday evening, loading up a car with all the goods they had collected for Transportation Security Administration personnel who have been working without pay for more than a month.

“We really appreciate them coming out to help during this hard time,” said TSA Officer Tiffany Rios, as she and fellow Officer Chynae Raiford transferred goods from the car to a cart at Terminal B. “Missing two paychecks is really hard.”

The four girls, members of the nonprofit Girl Up organization, wanted to help TSA workers’ kids. So they started collecting food and other items several days ago and held another drive at the airport’s cell phone lot Wednesday, gathering trunkfuls of donated gifts and needed goods such as juice boxes, granola bars, fruit snacks, backpacks stuffed with school supplies, tissues and diapers.

Girl Up, started by the United Nations Foundation, offers leadership training and tools for girls around the world to create community-based movements.

Janet Young, host mom of the San Antonio chapter of Girl Up, proposed the outreach project after she heard about the government shutdown and her thoughts went to the young government workers and their children.

“We know when the family is hurting, the kids hurt,” Young said.

The 20 members of her Girl Up chapter promptly took up the cause.

The girls secured a $500 donation in gift cards from CNG Engineering and they contributed $500 in personal donations, with help from parents, to the week-long project. As 5 p.m. traffic moved slowly past the lot Wednesday, vehicles with donations came by for the girls to empty their trunks and transfer the items to Young’s car.

Green said helping the workers felt good, but at the same time, she felt sorrow.

“I think helping out children is one of things I like to do,” she said. “I wish it was under different circumstances.”

Once Young’s car was empty, the girls helped the officers wheel the loaded cart inside the terminal. There, Vanessa James, supervisory transportation officer, joined the officers in thanking the girls for the donations she said would help many officers.

“It’s hard to put into words,” James said. “I have a lot of young officers, who have babies, young kids in school and living payday to payday. This will definitely help, the smallest of things really help.”

Josh Cottrill, TSA security manager, said the donations were part of an ongoing outpouring of support the officers have received from San Antonio residents.

While other airports have seen sickouts as a result of the government shutdown, the manager said the Alamo City has had a low percentage of officers missing work.

“It’s a testament to San Antonio officers and their sense of duty,” he said. “We’ll get through this together.”

Vincent T. Davis started at the San Antonio Express-News in 1999 as a part-time City Desk Editorial Assistant working nights and weekends while attending San Antonio College and working on the staff of the campus newspaper, The Ranger. He completed a 3-month fellowship from the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in 2003 and earned his bachelors degree in communication design from Texas State University in 2006.